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Oxygen is gearing up for the launch of the controversial reality series, “Preachers of L.A.”

The show centers around the lives around pastors Bishop Noel Jones, Bishop Clarence McClendon, Pastor Wayne Chaney, Bishop Ron Gibson, Pastor Jay Haizlip and former pastor Deitrick Haddon. When the trailer was released for the reality series, it received immediate backlash from the Christian community.

Bishop Jones, the 63-year-old megachurch pastor of the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, Calif., recently spoke to our friend Jasmine Brand at TheJasmineBrand.com about his participation in the show.

Bishop Noel Jones preaching

Jones, the twin brother of pop icon Grace Jones, also revealed to the entertainment blog that he is contemplating retiring from the pulpit.

Bishop Jones on possibly retiring:

“Because it’s always the right time to think of something that you’re going to have to prepare for. It’s retirement – it’s something that’s going to come naturally, it’s going to evolve, it’s going to morph so its something you give thought to. The Greek word to “provide” is to think beforehand. And ultimately, I would have to walk away from a pulpit – I don’t certainly don’t wanna die with my command. But in order to do that, I have to make plans.”

On whether he asked anyone for advice on doing “Preachers of L.A.” before signing on:

“Well, I called a couple of my friends and I got different opinions – some said ‘Yes,’ some said ‘No.’ My best friend said when he heard I was doing this – because I didn’t call him – but when he heard I was doing this, he said that he swallowed his tongue.”

“Bishop Jakes. So when he said he swallowed his tongue when he heard I was doing it – and rightfully so – because from his perspective, we’re two different people. I’m more open and more gregarious than he is, and less protected. And so, and he’s very protective. So consequently, I’m on the other side of the protection that he would like me to have and then it’s risky business – it’s no question in my mind – it’s risky business. I talked to the families that they’ve decided to go with, and I wanted to make sure that no one of us would do anything that would jeopardize how people view the other ones of us – that no one of us, would do something that would jeopardize how others are looked at. So we have a little council within the whole show thing, and then they can’t show what we don’t give.”

Why he ultimately decided to be featured on the show:

“‘Preachers of L.A.’ But at the same time it is – anytime, anytime that you’ve got to deal with money, clarity and humanity, and the human aspect of preaching. Anytime you deal with people who everybody put on pedestals, and put them up on pedestals that they can’t live on. Anytime you deal with looking on the other side and deal with lifestyle – It’s going to be controversial, there’s no question about it. The reason why I’m doing this show is because I want to deflate the iconoclastic dispositions that we have towards men and women who are in ministry or who are in any position where we want to look up to them. Because at the end of the day, everybody’s flawed. And I tell my friends, ‘I’m too flawed to be flashy’ so I try to stay as far out from the limelight as I can. It’s just that – and the truth is that I’m good at what I do. So if I wasn’t good at what I do, I wouldn’t be in demand. And because I’m in demand, I’m in the limelight. And because I’m in the limelight, it comes on, on the good and the bad – but we don’t want to embrace that. We want to give the impression that there’s nothing on – we don’t have a dark side. But everybody’s got a dark side, of course, won’t agree with me, but everybody’s got a dark side.”